Performance Appraisal

1. Introduction: After an employee has worked on a job for a period of time, his performance should be evaluated. Performance evaluation is the process of deciding how an employee does his job. Performance here refers to the degree of accomplishment of the tasks that make up an employee’s job. It indicates how well an individual is fulfilling the job requirements.

2. Definition of Performance Appraisal: Performance appraisal is the process of evaluation the behavior of employees in the workplace, normally including both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of job performance. it is an objective way of evaluating work-related behavior of employees. It ensures democratic environment in management because managers ensure treatment with their subordinates based on their performance, not on the basis of any personal relationship.

3. Features of Performance Appraisal: The main characteristics of performance appraisal are:
a. Performance appraisal provides an objective description of an employee’s job related strengths and weaknesses.
b. It is a systematic process. A number of logical steps are followed to evaluate employee’s strengths and weaknesses.
c. The appraisal is carried out periodically, according to a definite plan. It is certainly not a one-shot deal.
d. It tries to find out how well the employee is performing the job and tries to establish a plan for further improvement.
e. Performance appraisal may be formal or informal. The informal evaluation is more likely to be subjective and influenced by personal factors. Some employees are liked better than other and have, for that reason only, better chances of receiving various kinds of rewards then others. The formal system is likely to be fairer and objective since it is carried out in a systematic manner, using printed appraisal forms.

4. Objectives of Performance Appraisal: One human resource objective for using performance appraisal systems is to determine who should be promoted, demoted, transferred, or terminated. However, these are not the only human resource functions that are related to performance appraisal.
Performance appraisals also can be used to motivate and improve performance. By showing an individual there his or her strengths lie and pointing out areas that still need improvement, an evaluator can help focus an employee’s attention on a course that will produce the most positive benefits additionally reinforcing behaviors that have produced strong positive results should motivate the individual to continue to perform in this manner.
A well-designed performance appraisal systems also can encourage individuals to work together as a team. If this is an organization’s goal, it must face several challenges in designing and implementing such a system. Obviously, the traditional, individual- focused performance appraisal systems are no longer appropriate.

5. What is to be Apprised?: Every organization has to decide what to appraise before the programmed is approved. Generally, the content to be appraised is determined on the basis of job analysis. The content to be appraised may be:
1. Behaviors which measure observable physical actions, movements.
2. Objectives which measure job related results like amount of deposits mobilized, and
3. Traits which are measured in terms of personal characteristics observable in employee’s job activities.
The content to be appraised may vary with the purpose of appraisal and type and level of employees.

6. Who will Apprise? :

7. When to Apprise? : Informal appraisals may be conducted whenever the supervisors of the HR managers feel it is necessary. However, systematic appraisals are conducted on a regular basis, say, for example, annually or half-yearly. However, appraisals are most often conducted once a year. Recent research suggests that more frequent feedback correlates positively with improved performance.

8. The process of Performance Appraisal: Developing and conducting performance appraisals should not be done in isolation. The performance appraisal is closely related to a number of human resource management activities that should be considered below.
1. Job Analysis: The performance appraisal should be based on a thorough job analysis. The results of the job analysis can be used to produce a job description, which describes the work to be performed, and job specification, which outline the requirements necessary to accomplish the job.
2. Performance Standards: performance standards should be derived from the job analysis information, based on this information; the levels of performance deemed to be acceptable versus those that are unacceptable are developed. In essence, this determiners a standard against which to compare employee performance. A good performance standard describes what an employee should have produced or accomplished upon completing a specific activity.
3. The performance appraisal system: In general, employees should be evaluated on a number of specific dimensions of job performance. Each of the specific dimensions of job performance used to evaluate an individual’s performance should be developed so that it is not deficient, contaminated, distorted, or irrelevant. Job dimensions that fail to measure all of the important aspects of performance would be viewed as deficient. When extraneous factors that are not central to overall successful performance are included in the evaluation of one’s job performance, contamination has occurred. Job dimensions that suffer from distortion do not emphasize each component in relation to its importance to the job. Finally, a job dimension that measures only aspects of performance that are truly important in determining job effectiveness would be considered relevant.
4. Assessing performance: The actual performance assessment is the determination of the employee’s strengths and weaknesses. One purpose of a performance appraisal is to improve the employee’s performance. As a result, performance weaknesses must be determined. However, it is also important to reinforce existing behavior that is deeded to be strong.
5. Performance Review: The performance review is the actual discussion that transpires between the rater and the rate regarding the rater’s performance. Research suggests that the performance review should be approximately 60 minutes long and be a mutual discussion. However, employee responses to an employment survey indicated that most performance reviews are relatively short.
Because the performance review involves two people, the appraiser and the appraiser, the review should entail an exchange of information between these two parties. This information exchange can take many forms. Three of the most common include closed reporting, and coaching.
6. Setting A plan of Action: By this point in the review, the employee should have an accurate idea of his or her performance evaluation. The employee should know his or her strengths and weaknesses.
At this point the supervisor and employee should focus on the future. Job performance objectives should be discussed to establish a plan of action. The employees as well as the supervisor should have input in this process. This is often an appropriate time to explore the employee’s career interest and developmental needs. The employee should be aware of the supervisor’s expectations in regard to the plan.
Finally, the supervisor reviews the job performance and plan of action developed. And then sets objectives, based at least in part on the plan identified for the next rating period. This will provide the employee with direction and guidance about what is expected.

10. Methods of Performance Appraisal: Several appraisal methods are available for judging the performance of the employees. however, the HR manager has to make the choice of a method best suited to the work culture of the organization and fulfill its needs. The widely used methods may broadly be categorized under two types (i) those using absolute standards and (ii) those using relative standard.